Hey folks! Been meaning to post a thread on this bass project for quite a while. Hope you all enjoy!
A bit of background on me - I have an abundance of experience in the home building industry, and am relatively comfortable working on most things. That being said, I'd wanted a 'project bass' of the American plywood variety for quite some time. My experience actually working on upright basses was/is limited, but I knew that - at the very worst - I'd still have a good time. Also worth mentioning is that I live a relatively small distance from the wizard himself, James Condino in the event that I got into a bass that needed repairs outside my bravery threshold.
After a good bit of casual searching - I ended up on an auction site, bidding on a '1952' Kay bass that just-so-happened to be located right here in Charlotte, NC. I won the auction with a bid way south of $1k and headed over to met the seller and pick up the bass.
And here she is in all her glory -
Typical Kay heel break in full effect:
Repaired via a fine variety of random long screw:
Strings are an odd mix of gut, flat, and even roundwound
Here is the serial number from the listing - I believe it's actually a 1954 as opposed to '52:
All in all, the bass had its fair share of issues, but they pale in comparison to others I've seen, and I felt like they'd be manageable.
The owner of the bass was the grandson of its original owner. He mentioned that his grandfather would have his friends over to his home on Saturday nights to play music, and that the bass spent all of it's life inside that home. In short, despite the neck break, the bass was in great shape (soundpost up, seams tight, no punctures, etc.) and had nearly all the original parts including the solid tailgut, branded tailpiece, steel endpin, tuners, and what I assume to be the original bridge.
The neck repair had pulled loose long ago, so the first order of business was to disassemble:
The screw was surprisingly easy to remove, I used a screwdriver to start it and backed the rest out with my drill
What appears to be hide glue has been slathered right onto the neck. I'm glad it wasn't epoxy or an equivalent.
The neck heel was very clean, the glue didn't seem to bond much with it i guess.
I did notice a decent gap between the neck heel and block It was filled in with a good bit of glue as well.
All cleaned up. Lots of time with a warm damp rag and a dull scraper lol
I bought a thin piece of hard maple to fill in the gap under the neck heel. The joint gets tighter towards the back of the bass - but man, was that glue tough to clean out.
I test fitted the joint about a hundred times until I had the fit perfect:
The strings had rutted the fingerboard out a good bit. I'd bet the board hadn't ever been dressed.
Check out the ridges from that roundwound E string hahah!
I neglected to make any decent photos of the glue-up, but I basically made the decision to utilize the existing through-fingerboard screw hole to help brace the joint. I bought some fish glue, a brand new screw, grabbed some clamps and said some prayers.
Side note: My fiance' was out of town, or else I'd likely be a single man for using this...uh....'workbench':
I let the glue set up for several days - and thought long and hard about those ruts in the fingerboard.
I decided to try and plane them out. Now, I have used a ton of hand tools, but never a block plane. I bought a fresh one from Lowes and sharpened it to an absolutely unnecessary level.
I started very slow, taking off very small amounts of material, and eventually got a feel for the tool.
I took a ton of time carefully getting the right 'scoop' in the board, and even more time getting it to the level of finish I wanted. Back on the forbidden workbench...
I put wood filler on top of the neck screw and stained it. Kinda cheesy, but whatever
At this point I made the decision that the original bridge was trashed, so I ordered a blank, and a spacing gauge and got to work. Behold the skull bridge hahah!
Fitting the bridge to the body was a task. The old bridge had been so warped for so long that the feet weren't very even. I used a bit of black Halloween lipstick and worked until it was perfect.
Also - I hunted down a set of strings (Zyex Lights) and a pickup (Realist Copperhead) right here on TB during this time.
A bit of background on me - I have an abundance of experience in the home building industry, and am relatively comfortable working on most things. That being said, I'd wanted a 'project bass' of the American plywood variety for quite some time. My experience actually working on upright basses was/is limited, but I knew that - at the very worst - I'd still have a good time. Also worth mentioning is that I live a relatively small distance from the wizard himself, James Condino in the event that I got into a bass that needed repairs outside my bravery threshold.
After a good bit of casual searching - I ended up on an auction site, bidding on a '1952' Kay bass that just-so-happened to be located right here in Charlotte, NC. I won the auction with a bid way south of $1k and headed over to met the seller and pick up the bass.
And here she is in all her glory -
Typical Kay heel break in full effect:
Repaired via a fine variety of random long screw:
Strings are an odd mix of gut, flat, and even roundwound
Here is the serial number from the listing - I believe it's actually a 1954 as opposed to '52:
All in all, the bass had its fair share of issues, but they pale in comparison to others I've seen, and I felt like they'd be manageable.
The owner of the bass was the grandson of its original owner. He mentioned that his grandfather would have his friends over to his home on Saturday nights to play music, and that the bass spent all of it's life inside that home. In short, despite the neck break, the bass was in great shape (soundpost up, seams tight, no punctures, etc.) and had nearly all the original parts including the solid tailgut, branded tailpiece, steel endpin, tuners, and what I assume to be the original bridge.
The neck repair had pulled loose long ago, so the first order of business was to disassemble:
The screw was surprisingly easy to remove, I used a screwdriver to start it and backed the rest out with my drill
What appears to be hide glue has been slathered right onto the neck. I'm glad it wasn't epoxy or an equivalent.
The neck heel was very clean, the glue didn't seem to bond much with it i guess.
I did notice a decent gap between the neck heel and block It was filled in with a good bit of glue as well.
All cleaned up. Lots of time with a warm damp rag and a dull scraper lol
I bought a thin piece of hard maple to fill in the gap under the neck heel. The joint gets tighter towards the back of the bass - but man, was that glue tough to clean out.
I test fitted the joint about a hundred times until I had the fit perfect:
The strings had rutted the fingerboard out a good bit. I'd bet the board hadn't ever been dressed.
Check out the ridges from that roundwound E string hahah!
I neglected to make any decent photos of the glue-up, but I basically made the decision to utilize the existing through-fingerboard screw hole to help brace the joint. I bought some fish glue, a brand new screw, grabbed some clamps and said some prayers.
Side note: My fiance' was out of town, or else I'd likely be a single man for using this...uh....'workbench':
I let the glue set up for several days - and thought long and hard about those ruts in the fingerboard.
I decided to try and plane them out. Now, I have used a ton of hand tools, but never a block plane. I bought a fresh one from Lowes and sharpened it to an absolutely unnecessary level.
I started very slow, taking off very small amounts of material, and eventually got a feel for the tool.
I took a ton of time carefully getting the right 'scoop' in the board, and even more time getting it to the level of finish I wanted. Back on the forbidden workbench...
I put wood filler on top of the neck screw and stained it. Kinda cheesy, but whatever
At this point I made the decision that the original bridge was trashed, so I ordered a blank, and a spacing gauge and got to work. Behold the skull bridge hahah!
Fitting the bridge to the body was a task. The old bridge had been so warped for so long that the feet weren't very even. I used a bit of black Halloween lipstick and worked until it was perfect.
Also - I hunted down a set of strings (Zyex Lights) and a pickup (Realist Copperhead) right here on TB during this time.
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